2025-26 Team Developments: Trades / Free Agents / News / Rumors / Ideas

Meh..you didn't believe in the Mavs that postseason either. You were hyping Denver or Minnesota. I was telling you, that it might just be Luka’s turn that year. You said that you doubted it. You never know what's going to happen until it happens. That's the beauty of live sports.

 

Okay, good to hear. Because you guys are insinuating that the 24 Mavs build is dated, but it was only 2 years ago. Meanwhile, in 2025, people wanted the Lakers to re-build the 2020 Lakers and have broken down AD at the 4 and 40 year old Lebron at the 3, FIVE YEARS LATER!

 

1. literally don't recall any of that.
2. so...you're saying...that definitively claiming that the 2024 mavs couldn't possibly win a ring in the very, very modern 2026 nba is maybe...a stretch?

 

lol...become stupid? i'm kidding...mostly.

i was actually really mad when we were rumored to be going after him, as i think he was overrated and overpaid. in retrospect, it seems to me the cleveland was just salary dumping a mistake of a trade from the prior year.

so...what would it take? i'm guessing vando/knecht/laravia gets it done. i'm not interested, though. hunter's basically been a "meh" at best player, and he's on a 25 million dollar deal. it expires, but i'm holding out hope we can do better with our options this summer.

hunter has basically been an expensive laravia who's hurt more often for a couple years now.

 

Yeah..I was the only person around here, on the Dallas to the Finals bandwagon early.

They might have competed in 25, I don't know, I still think we would have beaten them in the playoffs with AD in 25 tho.

 

i'll take your word for it, but it's completely immaterial to the argument at hand, in which you're arguing the same side i am, i think?

 

If we added Smart and Ayton, to AD and Max, we'd probably be still playing today.

 

What are we arguing?That the 24 Mavs would have a shot now? If Kyrie or Luka weren't injured...yeah.

 

Would have worked with Ayton and Smart too. IMO. Luka has been just as banged up as AD, by the postseason recently.

 

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we may have been here with Luka healthy and while I've been critical of AR's defensive shortcomings this playoffs he was coming off an injury as well.

That being said I tend to agree with you but the problem is healthy and AD just don't seem to exist anymore. Would still love to have him but that contract man what a f***ing albatross. Forget which Denver game where a regular screen completely knocked him of the game when Lebron and AR were cooking can't have that much tied to him anymore with that kind of thing happening. you go then with the younger player all day

 

I think Lakers made the wrong move back then. Turner, Ayton, Pascal etc should have been their target. I think Lakers were to consumed in the Austin Reaves trying not to make a Carso blunder. Smart, Max, Lebron, Davis, Ayton would have been great imo. Austin as 6th man.

 

Great points and I agree with it all. I just wanted to stay how we shouldn't pigeon hole these roles into one specific type of player.

The general idea that we want verticality on offence to open up vertical spacing is a great idea. We can get Adou to do that, we can get a SF that is a high flyer and ideally we have Hayes and another good C that can rim run.

Heck, I think we've developed another rippled to our offence in the early forward pass when someone leaks out during a defensive possession. How many times did Lebron get an easy dunk like that? 2-3 times a game? We made that a real weapon whether it was Luka, Reaves or Lebron on the ball.

I also think having 3 point shooting should be emphasised with Luka and Reaves/Lebron too.

Agree on a rim protector being helpful, not sure how easy it will be to get one though.

 

Nah, multiple folks here just completely anti-24 MAVS build, but a the same time the Lakers supposedly promised Luka a balanced 24 MAVS type build, and even went as far as trading for Mark Williams shortly after acquiring Luka. Williams was on a list of Luka's preferred players. We have receipts. IDK if its Lakers sensationalism, like we don't want to copy a build, or just trolling or what lol.

 

Yeah you could probably absorb Dort for very little. Maybe a highly protected first? I don't know that I want him personally, he is too dirty in his play for my liking.

I assume they trade their 3 draft picks to move up in the draft and just add a single pick.

 

I will say the Dallas blueprint started when they beat Phoenix by nearly 50 points in a conference semi finals game 7.

 

I just want to help yall out a little bit. Tony Bennett is in the front office now. He coached Deandre Hunter at Virginia. Won a national championship with him.

that’s the type of player the Lakers would be looking to acquire. 2 way player 3-D on an expiring. That’s the kind of trade the Dodgers like to make. Maybe attach a pick to it to make it enticing.

you might be getting the Peyton Watson effect with this kid. What he’s still 27 Luka’s 27.

so maybe a trade like that helps. He tore it up when he first got traded to Cleveland with Mitchell. Some would argue Cleveland missed some of that in this series against New York.

 

Yeah, I know it sounds like a foregone conclusion Bennett will want to get his old star player back, and he does actually fit in that PJ Washington stretch 4 who could defend role in theory, although PJ's defensive metrics a lot better. I would say Hunter is between PJ and Rui in terms of defense. He's on the Kings though now, which is a problem. Hunter in theory, is a good player to use a combination of some of our expiring spare parts, cap space, and maybe some light draft capital for. But again, it's the Kings.

 

Deandre hunter sucks - he's been salary dumped by two straight teams now

 

Who would you choose to fill cap space.Dort or Timelord?